My greatest framing oddessey (sp?) started last year, when I finished the bar in my basement and it was time to put up my two most prized prints.
I have a friend named Dylan Cole. He's a digital matte painter - some thing he's THE digital matte painter these days. His most recent work was Avatar (he designed the Tree of Life, and is the second person they interview after James Cameron on one of the making of specials) as well as Alice in Wonderland, where he did a ton of work including the castle. He's worked on Riddick, Superman, I Robot, etc. etc. etc.
Anyway, his very first film out of school was the Lord of the Rings trilogy. He moved to New Zealand to work on the project the entire time, and did some amazing work. As a present to me, about 5 years ago he printed out two of his digital paintings from the films - one of a long shot of Rivendell, and one of a long shot of the Eye of Mordor, with surrounding mountains. He printed them up at my requested size, 3x5. Yep, 3 foot by 5 foot. And he signed both of them too, which he found deeply amusing at the time.
Well, this last year I finally finished my bar where they were to hang, and decided to get them framed. Oh...my...God. I tried every local framing place I could find, from the Michael's like stores to the mom and pop establishments. Nobody would even consider framing them with a matte. I wanted a 3 1/2" matte all around, and they don't make regular matte material that large. Nobody wanted to get creative either, so I was on my own.
I did buy the plexiglass at a local glass shop, and I ordered the framing material online. I used a dense foam material for the backing, and ended up using vinyl that I cut for the matte material. I think they turned out pretty nice, but even doing all that work myself they cost me $300 each to frame. They're huge, but they look great together on the wall. I'll see if I can snap a photo to share.
I asked him recently if I could snag a print from Alice and one from Avatar too - maybe I'll get a nice Christmas present
I looked at them before I left. I had one of them before, and after time the frame itself started to flex around the top and started to look stretched out. They're $15 for a reason. I could put some posters in them, but I'd much rather spend more money to get something that looks better and will hopefully last longer.
JK!
